What boat are you building? If the design has a lot of bend to the plywood panels, the voids in the plywood layers of lower grade Okoume may result in failures. Chesapeake Light Craft's brief writeup on the subject is at this link:

http://www.clcboats.com/woodarticle.php/cart_id=66629ef5efd1c9809a35216a68d0527d

Kurt Mauer (sp?) built a couple of of S&G kayaks, and talks about his experience with inferior plywood on the the very fisrt page of his excellent website docummenting his projects:

http://members.aol.com/oldspeedy/

I bought my plywood from CLC and was impressed with its quality.

If the person who is telling you that lower grade plywood should do it is not actaully a boat builder, I'd look elswhere for advice. The money you save on plywood is inconsequential when compared to the costs of all the other materials and supplies you will pay for to complete the boat.

Several vendors will ship BS 1088 to you. Two sources are CLC in Annapolis, MD, and Noah's in Buffalo, NY (www.noahsmarine.com).

Steve C

: Hello,
: I am looking for plywood to build a kayak, which has a frame. The local shop
: said that they did not have 1088 British Standard Oekume. But, they do
: have what they call 'ordinary Oekume marine plywood in one eigth
: thickness'. The guy says that this should do the job for me. Can anyone
: comment on the advisability of going with this? The guy at the shôp says
: that they never get one eight in 1088 British Standard. So, it would have
: to be a special order. and that would be expensive.
: thanks, Joe